A process for recovering Rebaudioside A from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni
plants is provided and includes the steps of sequentially extracting
plant material with a first solvent to obtain a first extract, filtering
the first extract and passing the first extract through a polar resin to
obtain a filtrate, and purifying the filtrate to obtain a
crystalline-containing material. With further purification, a product
containing over 99% Rebaudioside A is obtained. The present invention is
also directed toward a method of purifying stevia glycosides to obtain
purified Rebaudioside A. In one embodiment, the method includes silica
gel column chromatography using an solvent comprising ethyl acetate and
ethanol.